Currently air conditioning equipment in buildings is one of the largest consumers of electricity in our cities. Similarly, refrigeration equipment for storing foods, medicines and other items requiring below ambient temperatures, is also very large consumer of electricity.
The present compression refrigeration cycle, which is the most common system, has 4 stages (See drawing 1/4).
Stage 1—Expansion: A liquid refrigerant at high pressure, coming from the condenser, flows through a metering device, lowering its pressure and expanding in the next stage, evaporation.
Stage 2—Evaporation: In the evaporator the refrigerant in liquid state and low pressure starts changing to vapor state with the help of the heat from the surrounding warm air pulled by a circulating fan, or by another warm fluid in a heat-exchanger.
Stage 3—Compression: A refrigeration compressor pulls the vaporized and warmed refrigerant from the evaporator and compresses it to a pressure high enough so the refrigerant, due its properties, raise its temperature above the cooling medium (air, water or others) of the condenser. Hence in this way, the heat collected by the refrigerant can be rejected to the cooling medium.
Stage 4—Condensation: After the refrigerant temperature raises as the pressure is elevated by the compressor, the refrigerant in hot vapor state, is sent to the condenser. From here, the heat gained by the refrigerant in the evaporator, plus the heat gained during the work of compression, is rejected to the cooling medium (air, water or others), thus changing its state to liquid. After that, the liquid refrigerant at high pressure and ambient temperature, will go through the metering device and starts a new cycle.
With the present compression refrigeration system, one compressor using one Kw of power approximately, as an example, could be used to remove 12,000 Btu of heat per hour from a conditioned or refrigerated room. That means that per each Kw of compressor power applied to the system, it can reject 12,000 Btu/hr (or 3.51 Kw) plus 1 Kw (from the heat of compression) to the atmosphere, making it a total of 4.51 Kw. This refrigeration machine output could be interpreted as being 4.51 Kw, where the input is only one Kw. In other words, the output is 4.51 times the input, which looks rare. In fact, the rejected 4.51 Kw already includes the heat removed from the conditioned or refrigerated space. That rejected heat is the key point of this invention; its main purpose is to use the energy, which is usually rejected as part of a normal process of refrigeration, and thus generate more cooling capacity, with little increase in electricity use.